I have never known much about the history of the Potawatomi people. But in these last couple weeks, I have had to opportunity to work on learning about them. I have been reading books about them and their culture. I have been able to read about their history and tie it into the line I have been researching.
The Potawatomi were once part of a bigger tribe that included the Chippewa and the Ottawa. They lived in the Great Lakes region. The Potawatomi were one group that broke off but stayed in the same general area. Their first contact with white people were with the French. As time went on, some were forced to move to Iowa, near Council Bluffs. They lived there for awhile until the government wanted all of them to move into Indian territory, in modern day Kansas and Oklahoma. Many did not want to make this journey and some ran off and remained in the Great Lakes region and Iowa. The majority of the Potawatomi made the journey to Kansas. This migration was called the Potawatomi Trail of Death. About 72 people died, mostly children, of typhoid fever and exhaustion. When they arrived in Kansas, they were worn out but began to settle in. They purchased land that they could live on near Osawatomie, Kansas, they were known as they Prairie band. A group of them decided to buy land and move to Oklahoma, near Shawnee, where they were given allotments of land and told they could become citizens. However, for many this did not happen until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. The group that moved to Oklahoma became known as the Citizen Potawatomi.
Learning about the Potawatomi people has been really interesting and informative and I feel that I now have a sense of information that was missing before. After learning about the history of the Potawatomi tribe, I was able to determine that the Wilmette, Hurd, and Crumbo family were members of the Citizen Potawatomi band.
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